Meldung

AJC Celebrates 15th Anniversary of Groundbreaking Berlin Office

01.02.2013

AJC’s Board of Governors, together with top German government officials and civil society leaders, joined today in celebrating the 15th anniversary of AJC Berlin’s Lawrence and Lee Ramer Institute for German-Jewish Relations.

AJC, the global advocacy organization, was the first American Jewish group to open a permanent office in Berlin, following decades of growing engagement with German officials, civil society and the Jewish community.

Eugene Dubow served as the founding director and was succeeded, in 2000, by Deidre Berger.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle addressed the audience of 300 invited guests at the Hotel Adlon. Westerwelle praised AJC for a series of milestones in German-Jewish relations over the past 60 years. He also lauded AJC Berlin and its director, Deidre Berger, for the key role played in successfully countering an attempt to ban circumcision in Germany, the protection of which the Minister cited as a core tenet of religious freedom.

During the celebratory event, AJC Berlin’s Ernst Cramer Award for Outstanding Contributions to American Jewish-German Understanding was presented to Lawrence and Lee Ramer, who founded the AJC Ramer Institute.